Shock
by LGBTFTW
Summary: Part one of.. Well, who knows how many. Goes back to the days of William's Hardware and Luke and Rachel.


Luke did a lap through the aisles of the hardware store, making sure the stock was properly stacked and making sure the few display power tools they had were unplugged- when his dad ran the store full-time, it was a nervous habit of his and Luke carried on the tradition. Once the store was successfully shut down, he turned the blinds on the glass door and opened the door to exit; when the door swung open, he was met face-to-face with his girlfriend- her red curls were soaked through, almost plastered to her scalp while the blue of her t-shirt had become a lot bluer with the water of the rain. He stood in the doorway, unmoving, and took in the sight.

"Rachel?" He asked, his voice barely a whisper. "Where the hell have you been?"

"Luke…" Rachel trailed, shivering a little. "It's not important." As she continued to shiver, Luke shrugged his arms out of his signature flannel and opened it for her to take. She put a hand up, passing him in the doorway. "Keep your flannel, I'm fine."

"You're not fine." He muttered and closed the door, coming back into the hardware store. "You've been out in the rain for who fucking knows how long. Where the hell have you been?"

"I've been walking around town." Her shoulders moved up and down in a shrug that her face mirrored. "I've been around."

"That's not what I'm talking about and you know it." He took his hat off and ran his fingers through his hair as Rachel stood, arms crossed protectively over her chest. "Where the hell did you go? You've been gone for a month."

Head down, Rachel let her shoulders rise and fall, her face mirroring the shrug. "I've been around," she reiterated, a little more insistent.

"But you _haven't_ been around! I asked everyone I could think to talk to and no one could give me a straight story!" He threw his hands in the air out of frustration. "I know you like to spontaneously get up and leave. I get that. That's your thing. But, usually, you tell me before you go," his voice got a little lower in volume as he spoke and his eyes went over everything in his line of vision, except for Rachel.

"Yeah, I left. What's it have to do with anything at all?" Rachel raised her head and looked at him.

"You weren't just gone for a weekend… You didn't just drive to where ever the hell you go when you take off for the week…. You were gone a whole fucking month!"

"I was in Hartford, Luke!" Rachel yelled and uncrossed her arms. "I was half an hour away, in Hartford, staying with my brother." She pushed herself off of the wall she'd been leaning on and brushed a stray lock of red hair out of her line of vision. "Yeah, you looked really damn hard for me, didn't you?"

"I wasn't going on a wild goose chase to find the latest clubhouse for when life got shitty. You left, Rachel. Why are you pointing the finger at me?"

"Are you even remotely curious about why I was gone for so long? Why I didn't bother to tell you I was leaving, or to call, or to even come back over the period of a month?" At this point, Rachel was louder than she'd been through the conversation, standing face to face with Luke.

"Not really. It's not like you'll tell me anyway." Luke scoffed and walked toward the door.

"Well, aren't you being an ass?" Rachel quipped and wiped at her eyes a little.

"How am I being an ass?"

"Because I'm trying to find the best way I can to tell you that I'm pregnant and it's yours and you couldn't be making that more difficult if you fucking _tried_." Rachel said, voice low and eyes burning into Luke's back, before moving to leave the store with her eyes welling up with tears.

"Wha-wha-wha-Wait, what?" He asked as Rachel tried to go out the store. He caught her by the hand and, at the resistance, she collapsed into a ball on the floor of the store. Luke got down next to her and she moved until she was laying against his chest.

It was apparent to Luke that they'd fallen asleep on the floor of the hardware store when he woke up with half of the town of Stars Hollow staring in the window. There was a piece of paper, Luke noticed- after getting the sleep out of his eyes- taped to the window and he could tell that the townies were trying to see what it said.

* * *

  
_Luke--_

Look… Last night wasn't fair of me. You deserved better than to be told about all of this in the heat of an argument. And I'm really sorry.

Please don't worry about me.

Rachel  


* * *

  
And when his mind caught up to his eyes, Luke balled his fist into the wall and let it blow through the glass of the hardware store's door. The townies remained unmoving as Luke walked to the back of the store and left the building via the back alley.


End file.
